Jamaica Single Window for Trade: Making business and trade easier

By Jamaica Customs Agency (JCA)

KINGSTON, Jamaica, (JIS) – The Jamaica Single Window for Trade (JSWIFT), the new and improved way of facilitating trade through Jamaica’s borders, continues to enhance Jamaica’s business and trade environment.

This Government of Jamaica (GOJ) initiative, operated by the Jamaica Customs Agency (JCA), was developed to improve the ease of doing business and enhance the country’s competitiveness, while bringing together various Border Regulatory Agencies (BRAs) and the business community, and allowing for the exchange of trade-related information through a single electronic platform.

Currently, over 72 import and export services for the processing and issuance of licences, permits, certificates, and other documents (LPCOs) have already been onboarded, across ten Partner Government Agencies (PGA), with an additional ten to be added.

The agencies already on-boarded are Jamaica Customs Agency (JCA), Trade Board Limited (TBL), Plant Quarantine Produce Inspection Branch (PQPIB), Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority (JACRA), Pesticides Control Authority (PCA), Veterinary Services Division (VSD), Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA), Sugar Industry Authority (SIA), Jamaica Dairy Development Board (JDDB), and the Hazardous Substances Regulatory Authority (HSRA).

Javar Smith, director, JSWIFT, stated that this digital system continues to be built out and will also facilitate “the upgrading of the e-payment services to accept the Central Bank Digital Currency as a means of payment, further system enhancements and improvements and continued stakeholder training and sensitisation for JSWIFT’s future.”

Other entities to come on board comprise the Pharmaceutical and Regulatory Affairs Branch (PRAB), National Environmental and Planning Agency (NEPA), Ministry of National Security (MNS), Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (MFAFT), National Compliance and Regulatory Authority (NCRA), and the Spectrum Management Authority (SMA).

JSWIFT was implemented in 2018, and allows for collaboration with BRAs and operates as the name suggests, a single window for traders to submit import, export and transit related regulatory requirements, to include applications for licences, permits, certificates and other (LPCO) trade documents.

Clive Coke, president of the Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Association of Jamaica (CBFFAJ), highlighted some of the benefits JSWIFT has afforded users including reduction in processing time and paper usage, the latter resulting in increased digitisation and automation in customs brokerage processes.

Coke further added that Brokers and Freight Forwarders were “grateful for the increased transparency that JSWIFT has delivered to cross-border trade in Jamaica. The technology has reduced red-tape bureaucracy, and enabled us to conduct our business with speed, accuracy and predictability and we are able to deliver consistent service excellence to our thousands of clients in the commercial and public sector.”

Ann Brown Chang, Customs Broker, also underscored this statement, by indicating that JSWIFT is a “user-friendly electronic platform where information can be accessed anywhere and in real-time and transactions can be monitored and tracked.”